Description

Quinn Peters remembers finding community at the LGBTQ+ youth group hosted at Qmunity and how that affects his relationships with his community today.

Transcript

Qmunity. When I was a teenager growing up in Vancouver, it was called the Gay and Lesbian Centre. And then it just changed the name to The Center and now it’s Qmunity. So it’s gone through a lot of iterations, but it’s still the same place. And, there’s this stained glass window that’s been there the whole time. And, you know, this is like 20 years ago now that’s sort of kept it as a place in the West End that’s important to the queer community. But for me, it was one of the first places that I met other gay, lesbian, trans, Bi, queer folk for the first time.

And, you know, I would pile into the room on a Friday night with other youth and go to the youth group there. And so it was the first place where I saw other people like me and other people in what would become a very important community for me, a community that I’ve worked in and, and volunteered in, and produced art in. So for me, that was really an introduction to a very central part of my life. And, the little room that we would climb up these wooden stairs into this cramped room in the corner. And there were all donated couches and sort of mixed and match furniture in this second floor, old building. And we would share stories and laugh and act like teenagers. But we got to do it with other queer youth. And we would go out afterwards and go for coffee or grab food, or once we were old enough, some of us would go out to the bar and would dance. And that was because of what happened at Qmunity, what happened in that building and how it brought community together.